That Mystical Expanse
by PikaCheeka
Summary: Um..can't explain.....it's a bittersweet legend and I made someone not quite human ^-^ [sorry, crappy mood]


A/N- This came to me as I was reading a book called 'The Folk Keeper'. The legends of this creature are mainly Irish. This technically could by anybody, and may work better with your own choice or your own characters, but I was personally thinking of....[This is PikaCheeka, I'm sure you can guess...^-^. I also had a few original characters in mind, but I mention the school, so it kind of has to be these two people.

This became sickeningly poetic and strange and fairy tale like, so be warned.

I added yet more depth and confusion to someone! ^-^

Seven tears shed into the sea at high tide shall call the Sealfolk

~Unknown

That Mystical Expanse

By PikaCheeka

The sight took my breath away immediately. Strange how spending ten months surrounded by magic and the supernatural, something as ordinary as this mystical expanse before me the other way around. It used to seem dull, but not today. Today it shone was brightly as the sun itself and sparkled where it was deepest, where it's deepest secrets were hidden.

I had one month till school.

And five days to be here.

It was a strange place. Almost no one ever came. I was the only one here for those five days. My parents had trusted me enough. Besides, they had said I would have the entire expanse of sand, wind, and water to myself, and I am a great swimmer.

Something suddenly caught my eye and I turned slowly, reluctant to stir the sand beneath my feet. 

He was standing there, not all that far away, but I was hidden by the rock between us. He was starring out into the sea so intently he seemed more than miles could tell beyond my reach. His pale silver eyes reflected the ocean miraculously as his silver hair hung over them. Barring them from ever joining the expanse.

I almost cried then. Not because he looked so forlorn, but because I was no longer alone, and I was unsure as to whether I wanted to be or not. But even if I didn't want to be, I didn't want him here! I hated him and he hated me! And yet, he looked so serene, so peaceful, so still...he couldn't be the boy I knew.

But why was he here?

The day passed. I spent it patrolling the shore. He had vanished. Where, I did not know. Nor did I care. I was glad he was gone. It scared me to see one so utterly frozen and still, as if time itself had stopped and all that mattered was that mystical expanse.

I danced around the sand, looking out at the blue like it was a long lost friend.

He was there again the second day. He was frowning deeply this time though and clutching his left arm. I couldn't be sure from afar but I could see that it was bleeding, most likely from barnacles somewhere. Draped around his shoulders was a silver cloak, most expensive looking.

I look back again ten minutes later to see him gone and the sky black with storm clouds.

It rained the third day. I still went out. He wasn't there, to my relief. And yet, I had the ugliest feeling he was watching somehow.

The rain was worse the fourth day, The wind howled and lightning lashed. I should never have gone out, but I had to. I had only one day left to cherish the blue.

I was standing calmly on a rock, one near where he normally was. But he wasn't there, so all was well. Until the unexpected wave came up.

I fell, to no great surprise of my own. 

I knew I was doomed from nearly the start. The water was cold and swirling, impossible to escape. I barely struggled. No one would come. No one knew I was even here, except him. 

He would stand there and laugh. Laugh his sickening and cold laugh.

Laugh until he cried.

Cried his own salt into this mystical expanse.

Something suddenly bumped into me and I grabbed it. It seemed to be a dolphin. Something sleek, that was all I knew. Whatever it was, it saved me. It pulled me in. 

It wasn't a dolphin.

It was a seal.

Then I fainted from fatigue.

I awoke later coughing and choking up water. Unsure of where I was, I sat up and glanced around, He sat in front of me, hitting a rock against his boot calmly and starring to his left blankly. I slowly followed his gaze.

I saw a sleek form on the rock beside him. It was flat and still, far too flat and still. 

Silver, furry, sleek, and dead.

A skin.

"You killed it!" I spat suddenly. He jerked his head back up. His eyes were piercing. 

"What?"

"You killed the seal...it saved me, and all you care about is the fur. Just to make yourself more damn attractive than you are! What did you do? What were you doing all those days? Watching it?"

"I wasn't watching the seal."

"You were! I saw you!"

"I know, that's why I waited. Waited till you turned away."

"What are you talking about?"

He said nothing.

I lunged at him, angry at the world. 

He was too fast and he grabbed my wrist, flinging me to the ground. Into the fur. I swear he held me for a second against it, forcing me realize that it was dead.

"Selkie." He said quietly after a moment.

"Selkie?" I spat, shoving him away. That was impossible. Those were in fairy tales. This wasn't a fairy tale. This was cruel reality. 

"My mother was a Selkie." He said calmly.

I starred. His pale skin showed his blood through, pale blue rivers. His silver eyes capturing the sea. His silver hair, the color of the seal. His pointed face, his small ears, his small nose, thin hands, narrow fingers, lithe form...

Selkie. Selkie features, seal features. People who, with the usage of a silver skin, become a seal and be a part of the sea. It was an age-old tale, as distant as mermaids to many, but more elusive.

"But Selkie's hair grows two inches a night."

He fingered a lock above his forehead. "Ever wonder why it's always jagged? Different every day? I don't do that to look cool." 

"So you are a Selkie?" I had always thought he was strange.

"My mother was all Selkie. My father was part vampire. I am all three. Human, Selkie, and vampire. I am not a normal human." He muttered as if embarrassed. "Don't tell..."

"But why me? You hate me!"

He raised his eyes level with mine. "That I do."

I was about to open my mouth and protest, but he silenced me with his gaze.

After a few minutes, he stood up. "Are you all right? I mean, must I stay longer?"

I noted the fact that he said 'must I', as if he wanted to return to that mystical expanse before his time was up. Before school was back. As I wanted to.

"I don't know..." I muttered.

"Then I shall be going." He reached for the silver skin. I noticed how fluently he moved, almost like liquid itself, the moment his finger touched the skin.

He then grabbed my hand and hoisted me up until I stood beside him. He was powerful, very much so, even though he didn't look it. Supernatural. It seemed so odd now. I had always known his first five years of life were on the verge of death from various illnesses, and how he was slightly paranoid and sometimes hallucinated. But he was always a cruel genius. And now...now he is a different person. I had never expected him to save my life before.

I shuddered. He was terrifying somehow.

His eyes were deep, liquidy, and sorrowful, like those of a seal. Except for the hint of malice that grew with his mood. A glint of a shadow in the corners that flared up beneath the slant of his thin eyebrows. That must have been the vampire blood coursing through his veins. It showed in his father more. His father had no Selkie in him, he was all cold. Cold eyes and hateful as sin.

So unlike his son.

I had never known his mother that well. All I knew was her bluish-silver eyes and her long golden hair. She always looked annoyed, as if his father was keeping her from the sea. Maybe he was.

Maybe. But something told me not even he would do that. That was a crime worse than death.

I was suddenly jolted back into reality when he moved quickly. He grabbed up my hand and kissed the fingers lightly, like a prince does to a princess.

That happened in fairy tales.

I smiled to myself. Perhaps fairy tales were true...

I glanced up again to see an empty rock. 

Those damned fairy tales.

The prince never ran in those.

He never vanished into that mystical expanse.

The waves lapped up against my feet and the wind danced with the sand. But my fair Selkie was gone.

My Selkie.

Gone.

"Come back!" I cried. I waited, listening. A seal can block it's ears. It only echoed.

It was the ocean he loved. That mystical expanse. It was where he ultimately belonged, I let out a cry of rage. The sea had him. He had the sea. I was alone. 

The ocean...I let out a slight sob. It was no longer my friend.

It was unfair. It seemed I had only met him and he was gone. And I may not ever see him again. The sea, when done with him, would destroy the Selkie in him. The kindness.

He would be left hard as ice. Bitter.

My Selkie was gone.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Deep below the surface...

He froze. He had done the right thing, hadn't he? He had saved her life, but that didn't mean her heart. He had never wanted that...had he?

But it was gone now. There was no turning back. He would only be hurt.

The ocean was his only true friend...

_Cry a seventh tear!_

Then I must come....

No seventh tear came.

No Princess returned.

He trembled slightly and struggled to block his ears.

But not even that could diminish the anguished cries from within his heart.


End file.
